Unruly and Disruptive Passengers

Almost 4billion passengers will travel safely by air in 2017. In the course of

the next 24hours over 100,000 flights will take place. The vast majority of

these pass without incident.

But as we know there are a tiny minority of passengers whose unruly and

disruptive behavior onboard flights can disrupt the flight experience and

travel plans of countless other passengers and adversely impact the work

place for cabin crew. Unruly passengers remains a significant daily issue

around the world.

We have just completed our analysis of unruly passenger statistic for 2016.

This is taken from reports submitted by airlines to IATA’s Safety Trend

Evaluation, Analysis and Data Exchange System (STEADES). 190 airlines

participate in this tool.

Now before I share the figures, let me give the usual health warning about

them as they are not perfect:

• Not all IATA members participate in STEADES

• Not every airline participates in STEADES

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So if anything the statistics are likely to significantly underestimate the extent of

the problem.

Let’s look at the numbers in a little more detail.

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Incident Reports

Between 2007 and 2016 over 58,000 unruly passenger incidents have been

reported to IATA. In 2016 there were 9,837 incidents reported so we’ve

seen a slight drop in the total number of reported incidents versus 2015

(10,854). This equates to a rate of 1 incident report per 1,434 flights (2015:

1 incident per 1,205 flights).

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Incident levels

However, if we look at the levels of unruly behavior we have seen a small

increase in the proportion of the more serious level 2 incidents (from 11% of

incidents in 2015 to 12% in 2016). These involve physically abusive or

obscene behavior, verbal threats of physical violence and tampering with

emergency or safety equipment. These can be more challenging to manage

in the confines of an aircraft.

Fortunately, the vast majority of incidents were classified as level 1 which

we classify as disruptive and tend to be mainly verbal in nature. Behaviors

include failure to follow crew instructions or violation of a safety regulation

(includes smoking in toilets which very dangerous). In many cases these

incidents can be managed to a satisfactory conclusion by crew using de-

escalation techniques.

That said, we also saw an increase in incidents where after all other forms

of de-escalation techniques had been exhausted, the cabin crew had no

other option but to restrain the unruly passenger for the safety of everyone

onboard. 169 incidents involved restraint in 2016 versus 113 in 2015.

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Incident Descriptors

So what are the top behavior or incidents that were reported?

The most prevalent was intoxication by alcohol or other drugs (including

consuming own alcohol)

Compliance with smoking regulations and other regulations

Disputes between passengers

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Intoxication – Behavior levels

Intoxication either by alcohol or by narcotics continues to be a significant

issue. The problem here relates to drinking prior to boarding the aircraft or

consuming duty free alcohol purchased at airports onboard without the

knowledge of the crew. The level of intoxication may not be apparent at the

time of boarding.

Further analysis of intoxication shows that the majority of incidents were

level 1, but 444 were level 2 (that’s about 1/3 of the most serious level 2

incidents).

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Non-compliance with safety regulations

Non-compliance with safety regulations is also a key issue: 54% relate to

smoking onboard, 34% to compliance with other regulations (could be

turning off or stopping use electronic devices, etc), 14% compliance with

seat belt signs.

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Solving the problem needs a comprehensive approach

So what do these statistics tell us? Well, despite the slight drop in reported

incidents, they highlight the need for governments, airlines, airports and

other companies to continue to implement the strategy that IATA highlighted

in our core principles on unruly passengers .

We need governments to play their part by enhancing the international legal

deterrent. But airports, airport restaurants and bars and duty free providers

have a particularly important role to play to ensure the responsible sales,

marketing and promotion of alcohol to avoid incidents that involve

intoxication that have to be dealt with in the air.

The Legal Deterrent Issue

The biggest problem we have today is that under existing international laws,

the State of the aircraft registration has jurisdiction over unruly passenger

incidents onboard flights. You can see in the scenarios shown on this slide

that when an incident occurs when an aircraft is away from its home base,

and an unruly passenger is delivered to the police at a foreign destination

they are powerless to deal with situation. Too often those accused of unruly

and disruptive behavior are often released without charge.

The Montreal Protocol 2014 (MP14) solves this issue by giving the State of

Landing the legal jurisdiction to deal with the passenger which we believe

will be a stronger deterrent through better enforcement.

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MP14 Status

22 States are required to bring MP14 in to force. We are now at 12 States

(full list) with Portugal and Uganda being the latest countries to ratify. On 18

November, Turkey passed the domestic legislation enabling it to ratify MP14

and we hope that it will deposit its instrument of ratification shortly.

More States like the UAE, France, Spain and Kenya are in process so our

best estimate is that this will happen in 2019. This is actually relatively quick

for international aviation treaties.

IATA’s local country offices are engaging governments to promote

ratification. We are also holding various regional and national seminars

often with the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) – in late

November we participated in an event in Nairobi to highlight the benefits

and process of ratification to States in Africa.

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Enforcement

But even where jurisdiction is not an issue, enforcement action can be a

problem. In some cases, prosecutors decide not to bring criminal case

against unruly passengers because it’s not seen to be in the public interest

– either because of cost, court time or evidentiary issues. So we are part of

a Task Force to amend an ICAO document (Circular 288) which provides

Guidance for States on the legal aspects of unruly passengers. We are

advocating for more guidance for States on the use of administrative or civil

penalties in certain cases. This is already in use in some States like the US

and New Zealand where aviation security officers can impose “on the spot”

fines.

Think of this as like a speeding tickets for motorists. You get an infringement

notice and you can either pay a fine or appeal it. We believe this is an

important opportunity in some cases for unruly passengers to face the

consequences of their actions, again acting as a better deterrent.

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Prevention and Management

IATA already has comprehensive guidance for member airlines on unruly

passenger prevention and management and responsible service of alcohol.

This guidance is being updated and put in to a new Cabin Operations

Safety Best Practice Guide that will be published in early 2018.

We’re also supporting and promoting best practice, conducting national and

Regional Workshops.

Finally, we are also inputting to and raising awareness of best practice

examples of multi-stakeholder initiatives such as the UK industry initiative

on disruptive passengers IATA also continues to work on joint initiatives

with groups such as Airport Council International (ACI).

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Summary

So in summary, unruly passengers remain a significant issue for the

industry and the only way to deal with this problem is for governments,

airlines and other stakeholders to continue to work together to resolve it.

Together with a more effective international deterrent and improved

preventive actions we’ll make flying even safer and incident-free for all.

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